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Wow - how exciting Bill! I personally would like something really cutting edge and modern. Something totally different and ground breaking with perhaps really unusual shapes and textures so that a serving dish is not just a functional item but a piece of art also. Too often things like this get put away in cupboards out of sight. I must also admit to liking very vivid colours. Hope to see your designs in the not to distant future Regards - Anne :wink:

I have to confess to being very impressed with my Denby "Baroque" dinner service, on the grounds of the colours, being dark blues, are not a food related colour, so are in contrast to anything served on them, the inner part of the plates is plain white, and the plates are large, so that the food shows nicely against the white, without getting mixed up with the border. Not a very original suggestion I suppose, but as I take food as seriously as glass, I want the food to be presented as well as possible, complementing the dish, not in competition with it.

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Cheers, Sue (M)"The really smart people know enough to know that there's too much that they don't know for them to be arrogant about the little they do know." Prof. Ron Davis OMF

From my kitchen experience I implore you: inverse stackability. Please make something that can be stacked in an upper kitchen cabinet and which can be retrieved without danger: the current situation is that the larger serving plates are invariably weighed down by a stack of smaller serving plates. If you need the larger one, you have to remove the whole stack - and this can be a dangerous procedure.

Bill, I also didn't comment earlier as I wanted to have a longer think about this.

For me, the most valuable feature of any item is its versatility, so items that may be used for more than one purpose are appreciated: e.g. in both serving and storing food and to be fridge safe.

For serving I also love divided dishes - being able to put multiple things in the same serving dish makes less to carry to the table, and takes up less space on the table and in the cupboard.

I endorse Ivo's inverse stackability suggestion - no-one ever seems to have enough cupboard space! Plates - I like oval and "rounded corner square" plates as well, I think the latter are especially practical in terms of space usage on the table.

Designs with lots of decoration can fight with the look of the food, so plain is better, letting the shape enhance the presented item, and the colour needs to be something on which all types of food with look good. (Imagine purple plates with carrots or sweetcorn on and you have a horrible garish mixture IMHO!)

Hope this may help a little. I look forward to seeing your end products also.

For me, the most valuable feature of any item is its versatility, so items that may be used for more than one purpose are appreciated: e.g. in both serving and storing food and to be fridge safe.

For serving I also love divided dishes - being able to put multiple things in the same serving dish makes less to carry to the table, and takes up less space on the table and in the cupboard.

In this supermarket age we are all prone to eating prepared foods as we're invariably short of time, so I concur with Anne's comments.

Although being different per se is not necessarily a good USP, I've noticed that most manufacturers have tended to stick with a "more of the same" policy.

A few weeks ago someone posted a thread showing some 50's Electrolux fridge glass that was extremely practical, but not very attractive.

What about upgrading that concept and working on a fridge to table to fridge basis. So when you come back from the supermarket, you tip all your purchases out of the plastic containers into glass containers that you can keep in the fridge but take straight to the table? Just a thought.

Good luck with it and congratulations!

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:D:D So something with snap-on tupperware style plastic, dishwasher-able covers? Difficult to fit in with stackability, perhaps, but an ingenious solution could be used incorporated as an aesthetic design feature!

Failing that, the dishes could be designed to fit on top of each other, one as base, one as lid, again, something ingenious and aesthetic!

Gosh - this is getting to be quite exciting!! 8)8)

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Cheers, Sue (M)"The really smart people know enough to know that there's too much that they don't know for them to be arrogant about the little they do know." Prof. Ron Davis OMF

the dishes could be designed to fit on top of each other, one as base, one as lid, again, something ingenious and aesthetic!

My pyrex casserole dishes do just this, but are very plain and funtional. I would love a varient on this theme which was 'prettier'. I agree about colours clashing with food, but I prefer coloured to plain glass, except when it's textured glass. :roll: So how about a coloured rim or a bit of colour somewhere, just not too much so it distracts from what's in the dishes?

A serving dish / bowl I am using a lot at the moment (for salads or fruit salad) is clear glass, but textured on the outside, and an interesting shape. It's shaped like an apple, and the handle is the stalk. It's a bit twee, but it's very useful. Doesn't stack with anything at all, though Handles should be shaped or positioned so that they don't interfere with the stackability.

Divided dishes are good, but they tend to be either oval or oblong - boring! :roll: How about a different shape? Round or square but divided would be different. Or what about a divided dish with one end larger and one end smaller - sort of pear-shaped? :shock: